12/12, back on my game. I figure if you all have personal bests, goals, I can have some of my own. But unlike you, I cannot remember what my best regional predictions were. I think it was 192 of 216. Currently at 81/90, so slightly ahead of pace!
SHARP AS A SPIKE
I will highlight one kid from each race for a little writeup. With Regionals and their survive and advance attitude, I’ll try to shout out someone who extended their season another week when they weren’t expected to, or contributed to a team that came in with a clutch performance. Of course, that leaves out many athletes who gave a great effort, and all of the athletes that were winners for toeing the line this weekend. Congrats to all.
Trenton Fetter, Adrian Madison
The Madison sophomore has gone through a ton of races this year – 15 to be exact, and his one on Friday was the fastest of the bunch. A 17:25 on the rolling Sharp Park hills was his 4th sub-18 in his past 5 races.
Kutter Vanaken, Reading
Going into last week’s Big 8 Jamboree, through 40 races of his career, Kutter had never been under 18:00. His 17:54 broke that streak and to celebrate, he found one more accomplishment: a top-10 at Regionals that led to another State Finals appearance.
Brooke Smith, Pittsford
7th to 5th to 2nd to a winner. Four years of regional races at Jackson, four top-10’s, one victory to cap it all off. The Pittsford senior now moves onto MIS where she looks to grab her third consecutive All-State honor.
Ava Hathaway, Bronson
Probably one of the more unheralded 14th place finishers in the State. That 14th place came at last fall’s State Finals and it appears she’s right on track to find her way there again. Ava has moved up from 5th at 2022’s Regionals to 3rd place on Friday, hitting a nearly 20 sec. season best on a course that didn’t seem to run as fast as normal.
Up to this point, I’ve been 51/54 on state qualifying teams, but here’s where the projections fell apart. 8/12 on girls, 10/12 on boys, now 69/78 altogether.
PORTAGE PHENOMS
I will highlight one kid from each race for a little writeup. With Regionals and their survive and advance attitude, I’ll try to shout out someone who extended their season another week when they weren’t expected to, or contributed to a team that came in with a clutch performance. Of course, that leaves out many athletes who gave a great effort, and all of the athletes that were winners for toeing the line this weekend. Congrats to all.
Lydia Byler, White Pigeon
Through four runners, White Pigeon was about square on what I had projected, ahead of Centreville by 2 points. The projected gap between their 5th runners was 5 points, with Centreville being able to advance. Lydia snuck ahead of Centreville’s fifth, ensuring a state appearance for White Pigeon, I believe their first team to ever make it.
Tessa Hatt, Sturgis
The course over at Madelyn Bertrand Park for the Wolverine Conference Meet may have been a little fast, but I’m sure it did wonders for Tessa’s confidence. Sub-20 there led to a sub-20 here, that 19:48 halving her projected place.
Jenna VanDussen, Schoolcraft
The senior has progressed from running above 22:00 for the majority of the first part of the year to nailing consecutive 21:3x efforts. Her 12th place yesterday was her best regional finish of her career and helped her Eagle teammates live to run another week.
Lexi Kowalski, Kalamazoo Central
Forest Hills Central was a major favorite to advance, beyond the Rangers, there were essentially five teams battling for two spots. To emerge from that crowded field, a superhuman effort is needed. How about running 2+ minutes faster than she did at PC’s Early Bird? Yeah, that’s what Lexi did, grabbing 30th place and placing low enough to secure a 2nd spot for her Giants.
Sean Siems, Kalamazoo Hackett
In a heated race with River Valley, any place, any opportunity to move up would be crucial. Projected 7th, Sean placed 4th, his sixth consecutive sub-18 performance.
Alessandro Avila, Constantine
Prior to this weekend, eleven races on the year, not a nary one below 18:15. On some quick or fair courses too – Warner Camp, here, Sturgis. Saturday, he not only broke 18:00, he absolutely smashed it, his 17:29 was a 45+ second PB.
Isaac Perez, Three Rivers
The purple wearin’ crew apparently wasn’t too happy with their projections, but they knew races weren’t run on paper. Isaac particularly came through as their fifth guy, the fastest fifth of anyone not named Plainwell or Otsego. He’s taken a liking to this Portage course, running personal bests here as a sophomore and just a few weeks back, so it’s only fitting he came through yesterday.
Reponse Shema, East Kentwood
A late addition to the Falcon squad, the senior Reponse ran his first race of his career at Kent Ottawa. That 17:09 was a dang good debut, his 16:25 the next week showed he got the hang of it. And his 16:44 on Friday was proof he can handle big spots. Not many get to run at the State Finals on their fourth race of their career – he will.
Friday Girls Adjustment: +6 Friday Boys Adjustment: +3 Saturday Girls Adjustment: +16 Saturday Boys Adjustment: +16
This seemed to be the case at Chippewa Hills as well, where Saturday’s times tended to be a little faster. My guess is the lower humidity and lower temperatures, plus perhaps one day further out from the mid-week rain led to better conditions?
12/12 again, making it 51/54 thus far. I feel like I had some rough projections further down the line, because I recall feeling shocked at some results. We like this for now though!
QUEENS AND KINGS OF THE POSSUM HOLLOW HILLS
I will highlight one kid from each race for a little writeup. With Regionals and their survive and advance attitude, I’ll try to shout out someone who extended their season another week when they weren’t expected to, or contributed to a team that came in with a clutch performance. Of course, that leaves out many athletes who gave a great effort, and all of the athletes that were winners for toeing the line this weekend. Congrats to all.
Lansing Catholic, Dansville, and Algonac
Very rarely shoutout entire teams here, but when you see a season long plan come to fruition, you have to mention it. Possum Hollow is host to two invites early in the season: Milford and Averill. The three teams from Region 26 that went to one of those were those listed above (and then a few others were from Oakland County). Algonac had three qualifiers, Dansville the boys winner and boys team, and Lansing Catholic swept the whole dang thing. Credit to their coaches for planning ahead and their runners for executing the race plan, knowing there was gonna be considerable pain in the final mile.
Claire Porinsky, South Lyon East
When one generation of Coach Testa’s Girl Gang graduates, another one comes into the fold. This Possum Hollow track is a great encapsulation of the progress she’s made. 21:48 at Averill, 21:19 at County, then 21:02 here on Friday. Way to earn those gloves and way to successfully drop time on each effort out there.
Ayden McDonald, White Lake Lakeland
After dropping the LVC Championship to Northern, doubts were out in the world that Lakeland could win this region. Someone needed to step up to prove the Eagles were the best team in the region and Ayden had a huge performance as their 5th finisher. A quick comparison could be done between the LVC meet and here, last week he was 17th against Milford and WLN, on Friday he was 11th against those two. Ayden wasn’t the only Lakeland kid to perform well, but he (and Ryan Ward, Jacob Kosidlo) slammed the door shut on any potential upsets.